Please Help Sickly Kitten

I adopted a seemingly very healthy kitten two months ago. In the last 4 weeks i have had him to the vet 3 times. he's lethargic, his fur is scraggly looking, he doesn't play anymore. He's been running a low fever and was on antibiotics for 10 days, and still has the fever. she doesn't think it's FIP, says that she sees many sickly kittens and puppies that have a rough first year. ANY IDEAS????? Thank you.

Has your vet run any blood test on this kitten? I don't have any ideas as to what could be wrong with your baby. I think I would look into see another vet thou. Not to sound like I am knocking the vet you have but to me if he isn't getting better than another opinion is in order.

Duh! Sorry I forgot to say Welcome. They don't call me Blondiecat for nothing. Keep us informed about your baby.

I've never seen 'many sickley kittens having a rough first year for no reason. I would probably get a second opinion. They should be running some tests on your furbaby. Good luck.

Go to a different vet, the current one sounds a bit lethargic herself IMO. See if you can find a feline specialist in your area.

Can you provide us with a more indepth description of what is going on here, it will help our suggestions a lot.

Here's a few started questions:

When you got him, was he scraggly, lethargic, etc?

What was he being fed by the shelter/rescue org...and did you change his diet from that?

What is his current diet?

Has he been faithful to the litterbox?

Have you made any significant changes in his envrionment recently?

How old is he?

Anything else you can tell us will help,

Spotz

Thank you so much for replying to everyone. It's comforting.

I am going to take him to another vet tomorrow which specializes in cats only.

to answer your questions, the girl i adopted him from runs a persian rescue organization in san antonio and got him from a "breeder who was having problems" when he was about 2 months old in Jan. I got him in March, so now i guess he's about 6 months old, very small for his age, under 5 pounds. he looked so healthywhen i got him.furry, not oily like he his now, playful, he looked in perfect health. This all started about 6 weeks ago.

I had him on Felidae, now he's on Pro Choice. He is eating, however, today he's been hiding under a chair and is one eye seems to be wondering. He's been great with the litter box, had diarrea very badly one week ago that lasted for 1 day.

Finally, 4 weeks ago his antibody count was quite high, so i will definitely get a blood work-up done on him a.s.a.p. as soon as this other vet can see him.

Yesterday I took Kegan to another vet and he did a complete blood work-up. I will receive the results today. His temperature was at 103.8 yesterday. I am so scared what the results may be. My worst fear is he has something incurable.

(((((HUGS))))) I hope Kegan will be okay, fingers crossed that the vet figures out what's wrong.

Here's an update on my little Kegan, all of his blood work came back relatively o.k. Not great, but the doc said if he's wasn't running this low grade fever and sleeping all the time he wouldn't think anything was wrong. He's slightly anemic, and still sleeps mostly under the chair. Tomorrow i'm taking back to the vet, again, this time to have his urine checked.

Does anyone have any ideas as to what could be wrong??????????

Hopper, there are a few things you said in your posts that worry me. Firstly, that the breeder was having problems. Can you tell us a bit more about that? Do you mean that all her cats and kittens were ill or that she was mistreating them? The next thing is how you said the vet sees many sickly puppies and kittens that have a rough first year. In my extensive experience with kittens, it is not a normal thing for a kitten to be ill for no reason, even one that was ill as a tiny kitten and then recovered.

I'm not a vet but the symptoms sound very much like FIP. Also, has the vet tested for Leukaemia and CRF (rare in kittens but possible). He may have something called Feline Enteric Coronavirus (FECV). It is not the same as FIP but it can mutate into FIP weeks or months after the initial infection. It occurs in catterys where there is a dense population of closely related cats (the breeder?) and the most susceptible are cats under a year and very old cats. There is no test that distinguishes FECV from FIPV as coronaviruses are difficult to test for anyway.

Good luck with your next vet visit.

I would be doing a few things for this kitten while waiting for another appointment with a second vet. If he had to be rescued from a breeder, chances are good that this wasn't a top of the line breeder who cared about her kittens. She could have had some sort of disease running in her facility. He might not have gotten much of mom's milk, especially if he seems to be the runt-type. I would be batching up some kitten glop making sure that you add the GSE and the acidolpholus to it and start feeding him. The high fevers are his body's way of fighting infection, and that can be a good thing. Is he eating- drinking okay? Has he been flea treated? Was he tested for all the diseases, or is he to young? I don't recall that you said how old he is? When they are anemic, they eat litter, and they sleep, so if you are using clumping litter, or clay, switch to something that won't hurt him if he decides to sample it. Swheat Scoop is a good one, or even just shredded newspaper.

Please see the link below and see if you can get some of the pedialyte into him as well as start him on Kitten Glop-

http://www.kitten-rescue.com/kitten-...at%20to%20feed

I'm taking him in today for a urine test. He is about 6 months old, a persian, (he doesn't have the squashed in face or nose like some persians) and he's about 5 pounds. He is eating, not alot, but holding his weight and still hiding under a chair after he eats. He used to watch tv with us in the evening, not now. The rescue girl said the breeder was having health problems (her own), which is why she surrendered some of her kittens. He was the only one from his litter that the rescuer received.

When the vet (a new one) examined him on Monday around his kidneys he meowed, of course he wasn't sure if that was from pain or not. He never has liked being picked up, even when I got him 2 months ago. Is that normal that a kitten doesn't like to be picked up? The vet did a full blood workup, and all the tests for leukemia, etc. His titter count was not in the range that the vet thinks it's FIP.

Have the vet scan your kitty for PKD. It is common in persians but there is no cure.

I wrote 2 weeks ago about my adopted little kitten Kegan, 6 months old now and cute and sweet as a button, who I rescused from a persian rescue group in San Antonio, were they got him from a "bad breeder".

Last week I had a complete blood work-up, and as i posted, it came out o.k., not great, but the vet said if it wasn't for his fever and lack of energy he wouldn't be concerned.

3 days ago is belly swelled up and today i took him to the vet. He did an ultrasound and his stomach is filled up fluid (He thinks it's FIP and I'm sick inside). He sent the culture to the lab and will let me know for sure tomorrow. I know the kind think to do is put Kegan to rest right away, as I know this disease gets really painful, and there is no cure. He said maybe he has 2 weeks, but god, right now he's still eating, and wants to be cuddled by me. It's so hard to do. I don't want him to suffer and get to that point, but putting a 6 month old kitty to sleep is a pain i can't describe. I cannot believe this is happening.

Now my 9 year old, who I rescued in January from the same group, as a big open sore on her leg. Perhaps it's ringworm that she got from Kegan? She hasn't been eating much lately as well, has a problem with all her fur and being able to throw up the hairballs (she can't, that's the problem). They've been sharing the same little box, etc. Tomorrow I was taking her to get some of her massive fur shaved down, put perhaps i should take her to the vet instead? I am so stressed out and beside myself as it what to do about all of this, and where i'm going to get the strength to have Kegan put down. I love him so much, in the 2 1/2 months I've had him. I know everyone thinks their cats is the sweetest, but he IS such a sweet little guy, always meowing to you when you talk to him and a little baby doll face with 4 white paws and the most fluffy tail i've ever seen. I've been crying all day. . .

Hopper...(HUGS)...I'm SOOOOO sorry for what you are going through. Know that if you do have to put Kegan to sleep that he knew what love was from you.

I do hope your vet is able to tell you what is going on with your 9 year old. We are definately here to support you through this.

Katie

Originally Posted by CS_Hopper

I adopted a seemingly very healthy kitten two months ago. In the last 4 weeks i have had him to the vet 3 times. he's lethargic, his fur is scraggly looking, he doesn't play anymore. He's been running a low fever and was on antibiotics for 10 days, and still has the fever. she doesn't think it's FIP, says that she sees many sickly kittens and puppies that have a rough first year. ANY IDEAS????? Thank you.

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Hi, Ask the vet to check the kitten for pancreatis. It is hard to diagnose. You can look it up on computer. They get diahrea, vomit, lethargic, lose weight, look scraggly, doesn't play, etc. It gets worse. I lost a beautiful Persian because of the ignorance of the Vet and did not know or check into the health problem to late. They need to be on a low fat diet and preferrably science prescription diet for this. You can monitor it and it is deadly if not treated correctly. Please check into it ASAP.